Jake Fernung
Prof. Warner
HIS-102
15 September 2015
Atlantic World System

Importing and exporting items across the Atlantic Ocean appears very simple in today’s modern world, with two-day shipping from Asia to America very much possible. But before Christopher Columbus made the voyage over 500 years ago, that idea was not even considered. It wasn’t until after Columbus returned from the Caribbean islands, which he believed to be India, did others realize it was possible to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. A hundred years after Columbus’s findings, numerous explorers had successfully sailed across the Atlantic Ocean into America and also around the tip of Africa. This led to the Columbian exchange, the Great Convergence, and the beginning of the Atlantic World System. The origin of the Atlantic System was Columbus discovering the eastern Caribbean. Following this discovery, the Treaty of Tordesillas was agreed to between Spain and Portugal, giving Portugal territory east of the Atlantic and Spain territory west of it. The Atlantic System became very different compared to previous systems of trade and cultural exchange. In earlier interactions, the Europeans and Africans were able to interact without one side becoming more powerful than the other. Many traditions and cultures became shared, and trade thrived. However, the Europeans were able to conquer the natives of the Caribbean and much of South America. While Spain began overtaking America, Portugal took control of Brazil (470). The Atlantic System was devastating to the natives in the Americas. The Europeans brought disease that killed many, and the efforts of the Europeans to claim territory drove the natives out of their homes. The Inca and Aztec Empires were quickly conquered once the Spanish arrived. This created an issue of labor for the Europeans, as local labor supplies declined with the decrease of Indians. To resolve this problem, European conquistadors and colonizers quickly resorted to enslaving Indians and forcing the labor upon them. Trade quickly became majorly affected with the Great Convergence and Atlantic System. The center for trade was located in Asia. The Portuguese began forcing their way into commercial trading in Asia by seizing ports along the Indian Ocean rim. Portugal had soon created a trading post empire and monopoly, until merchants started to avoid Portuguese control. However, other countries such as the Netherlands, England, and France took notice of Portugal’s success and started to embark on their own attempts of seizing trading posts (481).
Portugal had exploited the route to Asia by sailing around the Cape of Good Hope, but in the early 1500s a route to Asia by going west had still not been found. However, in 1519, Ferdinand Magellan would finally connect Afroeurasia and America from both the east and the west. Magellan’s two-year voyage went around the eastern coast of South America, through the Strait of Magellan (now named after him), and making it back to Manila located in the Philippines.
With the Atlantic Ocean now the heart of transportation, new technology and other articles were now very accessible, and what used to be foreign items became no longer foreign but intercontinental. The use of firearms emerged during the sixteenth century. This played a huge role in expansion of large empires, as the more powerful empires began to centralize and take command of smaller, lesser territories. And when the smaller territories became part of a bigger whole, so did their cultural tendencies, beliefs, language, and so on. A more consolidated culture came out of mixed cultures. Major Southeast Asian states included the Mughal Empire and Ming Empire, while the major European states included the Russian Empire, Holy Roman Empire, and Ottoman Empire, as well as others. But even with the expanding of empires, the region of the largest population and industrialization remained in Asia. This required Europeans to continue to utilize the Atlantic System to travel to the Americas to gain wealth.
As technology continued to progress during the middle of the sixteenth century, trade across the Atlantic started to become more profitable. More of a business approach was developing as opposed to simply exploration. (520) The Columbian Exchange also persisted across the Atlantic, as Europeans brought more and more organisms to the Americas. A contrasting effect was true for silver. Europeans returning from America brought silver, where it was turned into coins, and soon became used as a form of currency for commercial trade.
By the seventeenth century, crossing the Atlantic System was no longer a new concept. Populations and economies, although still fairly new, began to settle. In Afroeurasia, the economy negatively shifted. Population growth ceased, and rising inflation became problematic. Germany, Spain, and many other European states also struggled. Theories of why such a recession include a decrease in silver, the effects of the slowing population growth, and weather temperate changing and dropping in certain regions. In contrast, Southern Asia, Western Africa, and the United Netherlands continued to flourish (540). Yet this economic downturn proved little effect on the worldwide expansion and new locations of America and Afroeurasia continuing the connect, and each society experienced the effects of the Atlantic System in different ways.
Before Columbus ventured west and reached the Caribbean, the world was still very much a mystery. However, it was not long before European explorers began to realize the usefulness of the Atlantic System and how it would play a role for the future. Native Americas watched helplessly as their indigenous lands were taken and population dwindled. Empires were created and destroyed and everything in between because of the Atlantic World System. However, it was only a matter of time before America and Europe were connected. The world was forever changed due to the Great Convergence, Columbian Exchange, and Atlantic System. The world we now know was ultimately shaped from a simple route that today is taken for granted.